At retail, small low-cost consumer products, such as toys, novelty items, batteries, cameras, video games and the like are displayed in the retail store on shelves or hang from racks from which the consumer may remove one for inspection and/or purchase. Frequently those products are packaged in blister paks or in vacuformed clamshell packages, widely known to the purchasing public. In the familiar blister pack the item is encased in a transparent plastic “bubble”, a thin piece of transparent plastic that forms a shroud or dome like structure about most of the product, that is heat sealed or glued to a card of paper board or other fiber based printable material. The paper board card contains the printed or lithographed text and/or graphic material, such as the brand, model information, regulatory information and discretionary advertising, some of which may be viewed through the plastic bubble. An end of the cardboard and/or plastic material contains or is shaped as a hanger or contains an attached hanger so that the package may be hung from an extending rod of the display rack. The blister pak package is convenient for the retailer, since, for one, the bubble pak discourages pilfering by an errant customer or employee and generally allows the customer to visually inspect the item before making the purchase. In some such packages for some products a sheet of instructions is included.
To extract the article from the package following purchase, the purchaser needs to tear the plastic bubble away from the cardboard. Now destroyed, the bubble pak is discarded as waste. If an instruction sheet is included the sheet is typically discarded after first use or misplaced. And if the purchased article contains multiple items, such as an instruction booklet and camera, a book and crayons or multiple small toys, e.g. a multi-component article, the destroyed package can't be used later to store the items. After initial use the purchaser is left to make other arrangements for storage.
Like the bubble pak, the vacuformed clamshell package is also widely known to consumers and, typically, permits the purchaser to visually inspect the packaged product. The vacuformed plastic case of the clamshell package is sealed along seams. As commonly known, it is not possible to easily remove the product (or components of a product) from that package with one's bare hands. Opening the package is somewhat of a struggle and requires use of a sharp heavy duty scissor or knife to cut apart the plastic and extract the product. The destroyed clamshell package is no longer useful and, like the bubble pak, is also discarded in the waste. Similarly, if the purchased item is a multi-component article, the destroyed package is unavailable to later store the items together and the purchaser needs make other arrangements for post-use storage.
The difficulty experienced by the customer with the clamshell packages produces some complaints, particularly from those customers who may have been injured by the sharp edges exposed by cutting through the somewhat thick plastic of the vacuformed clamshell packages. For that reason alone one finds need for a package that can be opened more easily than those packages, particularly for those products intended for purchase by young mothers for their young children, even though that may somewhat compromise the anti-pilfering benefit of the prior packaging. As an advantage the present invention provides such a package, yet protects the manufacturer's interest in including advertising to induce purchases and, in some embodiments allows the customer to visually check the presence of a part of the contents.
A greater difficulty experienced by the customer is the lack of storage available for the multiple components of a product, once the package is destroyed to permit product removal. As previously noted the purchaser must make other arrangements for storage of the multiple components so that they do not become separated and lost. To store the parts of the product together the purchaser must exert additional effort to find or purchase a separate container to hold the components, a definite inconvenience and increase in expense for ones customer. Failing in that effort the product components are more likely to be separated and misplaced, which would halt use of the product. Even if one of the components is a simple instruction sheet, the instructions should be retained and stored. The loss of the instruction sheet can be problematic should one need to access the instructions a year or so after the product was first used.
Not only does the lack of storage capability produce an inconvenience for the purchaser, but the manufacturer of the product may find that his product fades prematurely because the product falls into non-use. The benefit of word of mouth advertising of a pleased customer is lost. As an advantage, the present invention adds value to the package for both the manufacturer and the customer, enabling the point of display package not only to achieve all of the advertising benefit of the foregoing prior packages (and more), but provides for storage of the product following the purchase. The present invention may be used and reused to store the product components.
Frequently a product manufacturer, such as a toy company, goes to great length in its package advertising, not only to induce the product purchase, but also to induce purchases of other products as well following the originally purchase, referred to as cross-sell advertising. That cross-sell advertising is lost once the package is discarded. As an advantage, the present invention retains that cross-sell advertising and results in that advertising being available to the consumer each time the product is removed from storage for use. With the present invention even the basic instructions may be preserved so that they can never be misplaced, lost or discarded.
The advent and rapid growth of the warehouse type retail stores perhaps accelerated the trend to rack type display of retail product in essentially pilfer proof packaging, such as the bubble pack and vacuum formed clamshell packages. With large quantities of merchandise and limited numbers of sales clerks available to assist the retail customer or watch over unpackaged small size merchandise it became unacceptable to permit unsupervised store patrons to open a package to inspect a product and/or retrieve one or more of the components in the package and possibly misplace them or, exercising self-help, remove the component as replacement for an earlier failed purchase, avoiding the long lines encountered in returning a failed product. As that pilfer proof packaging becomes more widespread, the quantity of discarded plastic packaging grows.
Discarding of plastic packaging materials appears of concern to many. Those materials are difficult to decompose. As the quantity of such discarded materials mounts obvious difficulties are posed to the environment. By retaining the packaging materials for as long as possible the problem of disposal could be avoided or deferred long into the future. As a further advantage, the present invention induces the purchaser to save, use and re-use the plastic packaging; and, in that sense, the invention is considered environmentally friendly.
One feature of the described prior package structures that is of advantage to both manufacturer and consumer is that the components of a multi-component product are held in place in the package and cannot rattle when the package is shaken. Hence, the components are not subjected to extra shock during transport and the consumer will not hear a rattling sound on handling the package as would cause that consumer to think that something is wrong with the product. As a further advantage, the present invention also incorporates that anti-rattling feature.
Accordingly, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a package or container for retail product that has the appearance of a blister pak and the security of a clamshell type package.
A further object of the invention is to enhance the retail customer's awareness of a multi-component product prior to purchase in a secure package.
A still further object of the invention to reduce the volume of discarded plastic packages and thereby make plastic packages for product more environmentally friendly.
Another object of the invention is to induce retail consumers to refrain from discarding plastic packaging for a product following the product purchase.
Still another object of the invention is to enhance the value of point of sale packages for product by ensuring the consumer's retention and post-sale use of the packages.
An ancillary object of the invention is to enable the purchaser of product to remove product from the plastic packaging without destroying the package.
And a further ancillary object of the invention is to induce the customer to retain the advertising materials associated with the product following sale and prevent consumer misplacement of basic instructions for operation of the product.